All the confetti

Fasnacht is the Swiss German equivalent of Mardi Gras. It is the time of year when ordinarily quite reserved Germanic citizens of the region have full collective permission to step out of line. I have now witnessed even the most reserved accountants and insurance adjusters reveling at the chance to disobey societal rules and make noise, sing, eat and drink until the cows come home.

The word “Fasnacht” is derived from the idea of fasting. In old German, “Fasta” means fasting time and “Naht” stands for night - hence “Fastnacht” means Fasting Night. Though the season starts in mid-February, you really start to feel Swiss merrymaking, debauchery, and all around frolicing the week and a half before Ash Wednesday. During this period, most everything is allowed - especially eating sugar and meat, drinking alcohol and celebrating.

At daycare, the kids dress up in Halloween style costumes every day. They come home covered in face paint. EVERY. NIGHT. Candy (which is usually not allowed at daycare) flows freely and everyone lives on a sugar high.

Yes, we wore a Christmas dress to daycare in February. Anything goes!

Baby doll got in on the action! (Face paint also comes off plastic!)

We wanted a unicorn instead of a butterfly by day 3.

One snow boot, one water shoe. Totally appropriate!

Valentine hearts & Santa PJs. We're really in the spirt now!

Cinderella is ready to greet you

I even impressed the daycare teachers with this costume. Penguin anyone?

Apparently she requested "mermaid skin". Bless those teachers, they figured it out.

At school, it’s slightly tamer, with just one day of celebrating. But it's a full day. Ariel with a unicorn face? Yes. Please.

Besides the school & daycare activities there are also parades. And when I say parade, I mean P . A . R . A . D . E ! I’m pretty sure the entire country lined the street to watch. (Please note I said “street” & not “streets”. There’s only one in the country.)

The bands all play “Guggenmusik”. Gugga bands are costumed bands who uniquely always play slightly out of tune while remaining harmonic. Guggenmusik is most commonly played with brass instruments, pipes and percussion instruments. The most frequently used instruments are kettledrums, trumpets, tubas, trombones or cymbals. And it is always loud. Very. Very. Very. Loud.

Adam & I were hiding the candy in our pockets to slow the inhaling of sugar by the tiny humans. One of them figured out the game.

In summary, there is music, there is candy, there are adorable costumes, there are scary costumes. There is a lot of beer. There is even more confetti. Like so much confetti. Like I found some in my dishwasher six months after the parade levels of confetti.

But here's the thing about the Swiss. They have top-notch cleaning crews eagerly awaiting the last Guggenmusik trumpet tune to fade! Then, they go to town and just a few hours later, the streets will appear cleaner than ever...

This is the same street when I drove through at 7:45 the next morning to go to work.